Singer With A Different Taste

Amatya’s songs give a different taste to the listeners

By THAKUR AMGAI

Students representing over one hundred different countries around the world including Nepal were excitedly waiting for an annual musical function at the St. Joseph’s school in North Point, Darjeeling, India. The Nepalese team had prepared to sing a popular Nepali folk song “Pani Muni Dhungama Leu Lagyo”. After rehearsing for several times they were anxiously waiting to perform the Nepali folk song among the audience representing all nooks and corners of the globe.

The show began. And with this, panic started to grip one of the performers of the Nepalese team. Never before had he faced a stage. In addition, this student of introvert nature suffered largely from inferiority complex.

The Master of Ceremony called the Nepalese team on the stage. But his feet were stuck on the ground. He almost collapsed but could not move ahead. After some minutes of waiting, the MC went on to call the next performer. The annual function that year went without a Nepali performance.

The event worsened the inferiority complex of this student. He was not only embarrassed for his action, but also felt guilty for punishing other performers for his cause. The distress kept this potential singer away from the stage for the next eight years.

Then, once in 1995, at a concert in Dhulikhel, he was heavily intoxicated - he says he does not remember singing. He sang the popular Nepali folk song “Aakashaima Cheel Udyo Dhartima Chhaya” in a rap style. He collected huge applaud from the listeners that comprised mostly youths. ‘Yogeshwor Amatya’ instantly became a subject of gossip among the urban youths, but he would not know it as he seldom came out of the cocoon of his family members and friends circle.

After some days, the Friday Supplement of the Rising Nepal, published a photograph and a feature about him. For some one whose singing horizons were limited to playing drums on the dining table and class room desks and strumming guitars under the poplar trees in his school, this was obviously a great achievement. “It was a shock, joy and happiness for me,” he said.

After friends persuaded to record songs, he sang songs like ‘Jaba Sandhya Hunchha’ which was again well received by the audience. After three years, he came out with his first album ‘Karai Karma’ (In Persuasion).

In the subsequent years, Amatya started giving more songs of different taste to the Nepali audience. Youth listeners became great fan of his unique voice, the style of singing and the miming during stage performances. However, Amatya’s stage fright did not wane off.

“I start panicking one week ahead of the stage performance,” he says. “I ask five people to feel my heart beat before I go on the stage.”

“However, once I go on the stage and the audience cheer and clap I forget all the nervousness and start singing. The applaud actually reenergizes me.”

Amatya has a wide fanfare, particularly among the young generation. However, he still does not feel very confident about his singing. Says, “I sing for self-satisfaction. It is a kind of therapy for my loneliness and inferiority. I express my joy and distress through my songs and I feel very relieved after singing.”

He has over two-dozen songs on record, and almost all of them are popular in their own way. Amatya, who spends most of his time with his family, makes his appearance in a year or two, each time with songs of different tastes. His songs like ‘Kattik Lageccha’, ‘Logne Manchhe Bhayara Runu Hunna Bhanchhan’ and ‘Kya Bore Bhayo’ had quickly caught up among the youngsters immediately after their releases. Songs like “Laija Chari Mero Khabar” have also been well received.

Amatya is known for remixing folk songs in a rap style. While he has earned ample criticisms for doing this, the young listeners equally appreciate and follow his style. He explains, “Remixing does not mean distorting the originality of the songs. It is to revitalize the masterpiece creations that have been stored in the archives collecting dust. And that is just what I have done.”

The songs he has remixed are popular Nepali folk songs like “Pani Muni Dhungama Leu Lagyo” and “Sindhuli Gadhi Ghumera Herda”.

Amatya, who has spent most of his childhood in foreign land, says he takes great pride in being a Nepali. “I would rather eat only ‘sag and bhat’(Rice and vegetables), but study in Nepal,” Amatya remembers saying to his father when he was asked to go to England after passing high school.

Probably with love for his country and a sense of responsibility to do something for the ailing tourism industry of the country, Amatya, along with his like-minded friends ventured for a musical tour to Australia and Hong Kong. In addition to singing popular Nepali modern and folk songs, they called the foreigners and the Nepalis residing there to come back to Nepal for Holidays through the song “Nepal Herna Aau”.